Fund-raisers for Dawn Clark Netsch hope to collect between $5 million and $6 million over the next five months to support the Democratic Party's gubernatorial nominee.

Forces for Gov. Jim Edgar, the Republican nominee seeking re-election, already have that much cash on hand and, they nonchalantly add, will easily reach their $10-million goal.

Next month, when each campaign organization is required to unveil a list of contributors, the filings with the State Board of Elections will highlight another stark contrast:

Mr. Edgar has corralled overwhelming support from prominent Chicago business leaders, including former backers of his 1990 opponent, Neil Hartigan, and more recent contributors to Richard Phelan-one of Ms. Netsch's vanquished primary challengers.

Netsch operatives are counting on a fund-raising reception and dinner here Thursday featuring President Clinton to help put $1 million into her nearly empty campaign coffers by the end of June (compared with Mr. Hartigan's $2.5 million at the same point in 1990).

They also are calculating that Ms. Netsch's relatively limited financial resources can be leveraged with a volunteer organization energized by her potential to become the state's first woman governor and by her bold call for higher tax revenues to pay for increased school aid.

Although money itself cannot ensure electoral success-witness the free-spending Al Hofeld's loss in the 1992 Democratic primary campaign for U.S. senator to the underfunded Carol Moseley Braun-it does prove handy.

Mr. Edgar's campaign, for example, already is spending freely on expensive television ads-a pre-emptive tactic that staked Ms. Netsch to an insurmountable lead in the primary campaign.

Mr. Edgar can spend early and often because he has won commitments from the likes of insurance magnate Patrick Ryan and developer Richard Stein and likely will land one from financial futures maven Leo Melamed.

Lack of significant primary opposition, the advantages of incumbency and tighter spending controls are allowing the Edgar campaign to trim its fund-raising estimate by $2 million from 1990's $12 million.

"The real answer to your question, 'How much are we going to raise?'," says Edgar campaign manager Andy Foster: "As much as we need to raise."

The same goes for Norman Perlmutter, chairman of Chicago-based Heitman Financial Services Ltd., who poured at least $20,000 into Attorney General Roland Burris' unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

"Roland lost, and I'm out," says Mr. Perlmutter. "I'm not a player."

Ms. Netsch, whose distaste for political panhandling is well advertised, has managed to move into her column some Phelan supporters, including heiress Marjorie Benton and Vigoro Corp. Chairman Joseph Sullivan. $500 contribution

Ms. Benton, a longtime Democratic Party activist from the North Shore, says she has contributed $500 for this week's Netsch reception but not $5,000 for the more exclusive dinner because she can't attend.

Later this month, she adds, she plans to schedule a meeting with Ms. Netsch to discuss the scope of further contributions.

A key for Netsch fund-raising efforts will be the extent to which patrons not only themselves contribute but persuade others to follow suit. And that kind of networking-particularly among professional women-has, so far, necessarily focused on less-affluent individuals.

Wealthy art collector Lewis Manilow, for one, says he will donate an undetermined sum to Ms. Netsch but adds, "I'm not going to be one of her active fund-raisers."

"People know there's not even the wink-or-the-nod quid-pro-quo for Dawn," notes Bill Morris, a senior vice-president for Chicago municipal bond firm George K. Baum & Co. and former treasurer for her campaign committee. "So, I think that's a problem."

Although Mr. Edgar's integrity also is cited as a personal attribute, big donors view the governor as more receptive to legislative action on wealth-enhancing opportunities, including riverboat casinos.

His no-new-taxes pledge issued in 1990 and essentially honored during his current term is another attraction for potential business supporters, despite Mr. Edgar's unwillingness to renew the pledge this year.

"I don't know of any major corporate executive who supported Jim Edgar in '90 who won't be with him in '94," says his running mate, Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra.

Ms. Netsch's effort to establish an offsetting "old girls' network" to the male-dominated CEO set is said to revolve around Playboy Enterprises Inc. Chairman Christie Hefner, who serves as a co-chair of this week's Netsch fund-raiser.

Penny Pritzker, president of Classic Residence by Hyatt, is another woman with a prominent Chicago name who is identified as a Netsch contributor.

Like Ms. Netsch, she favors increased state aid to education and points out that Mr. Edgar does, too. But Ms. Grant concedes, "I don't think he knows how he's going to (finance) it."

In cooperation with the Democratic National Committee, the Netsch campaign plans to schedule fund-raising receptions this summer in New York, Miami and Washington, D.C., in an attempt to capitalize on her emerging national prominence. 'A headline race'

"This is going to be a headline race all across the country," says Jack Reid, Ms. Netsch's campaign manager.

But exports from a traditional gold mine for Democrat fund-raising-California-are sure to be constrained this year by that state's own exorbitant campaigns for governor and U.S. senator.

Moreover, Ms. Netsch's national profile is likely to be overshadowed by Kathleen Brown, who last week won the Democratic nomination for California governor.